You Should Know

You Should Know

How Do H-1B Visas Support US Economic Competitiveness?

How Do H-1B Visas Support US Economic Competitiveness?

by Sara McElmurry

by Sara McElmurry

US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that it will suspend premium processing on applications for H-1B visas, which allow US companies to temporarily employ highly skilled foreign workers. How do H-1B visas support US economic competitiveness? What do these changes mean for the future of the visa program? Here’s what you should know.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that it will suspend premium processing on applications for H-1B visas, which allow US companies to temporarily employ highly skilled foreign workers. How do H-1B visas support US economic competitiveness? What do these changes mean for the future of the visa program? Here’s what you should know.

Photo: iSTOCK

Photo: iSTOCK

Many industries rely on H-1Bs to remain competitive. Forty-five percent of US employers reported talent shortages in a recent survey.

Photo: PIXABAY

H-1Bs for specialty occupations such as engineering, medicine, law, and business are valid for three years and extendable up to six. Foreign workers can’t request an H-1B; an employer must apply on their behalf.

US lawallows 85,000 new H-1Bs to be issued per year. Of that, 20,000 are only for workers with a master’s degree or higher. Existing H-1B workers and those employed by nonprofits are not counted in the cap.

Photo: REUTERS/Mariana Bazo

H-1B visas are awarded via lottery. Demand has far outpaced supply in recent years: 236,000applications for 85,000 slots were received in under a week in 2016.

H-1Bs are one of fewvisa channels available for US companies to employ foreign students after graduation from US institutions.

Photo: REUTERS/Mike Segar

Healthcare faces critical worker shortages with growing demand from aging Baby Boomers. A quarter of current doctors in the United States are foreign born. We will need an additional 90,000 doctors by 2025.

Photo: REUTERS/Jim Bourg

American medical students aren’t graduating fast enough to meet this demand. H-1Bs are one way some hospitals can hire qualified health workers from abroad.

Photo: REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

Immigration offsets population declineand an aging workforce in the 12-state Midwest region, which has grown at a rate of less than half the national average over the last 50 years.

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